Rose Fear (Paperback)

Translated from the Greek by Sarah McCann. Maria Laina's debut English collection. Laina's poems carve symbolically rich images drawn from mythology and the natural world. Rose Fear follows in the Sapphic vein: fragmented, prophetic, and emotionally charged. Sarah McCann in her translations deftly captures the music and the vividness of Laina's scenes, which take their inspiration from regions as diverse as Japan, the Caribbean, and her native Greece. Yet always behind the recognizable world lie the rhythms and lights of the fairytale, the fable, and the spell.

"A moving, vivid collection of verse … The collection's strength lies in its ability to challenge the reader, and its study of time offers new ways of imagining the intangible."--Kirkus Reviews

"Like a grim fairytale, Laina's silvery lullaby lyricism morphs into beautifully dark chants and hanging, haikulike scenes as it moves between voices and scraps of stories, complicating and recoloring the feeling of fear itself."--World Literature Today

Poetry. Women's Studies. Greek Studies

Maria Laina is an award-winning Greek poet, and the author of six books, including Rose Fear (1992) which received the National Literature Prize for Poetry and the City of Munich Literary Prize. Laina has also received recognition for her theatrical work, including the plays The Clown (1985) and Reality is Always Here (1990). She has translated the short stories of Katherine Mansfield, as well as the critical writings of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot.

Sarah McCann has been a Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and has taught poetry and translation around the world. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as The Bennington Review, Margie, The Broken Bridge Review, Midway Journal, and The South Dakota Review. Her translations from the Modern Greek into English have been recognized by the Fulbright Foundation with a grant, and have been published in such anthologies and journals as Austerity Measures, Words Without Borders, Poetry International, and World Literature Today.